


Go Ask Your Father

by dannihowell (iguessicantry)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alzheimer's Disease, Domestic Fluff, Genderfluid Character, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-07-30
Packaged: 2018-07-27 15:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7624060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iguessicantry/pseuds/dannihowell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The five times Dan happily said ‘Go ask your father,’ and the one time he didn’t.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Go Ask Your Father

1.

Lizzie shrieked. “You little shit!” The tenuous calm of the house instantly broken.

“You can’t call me that,” Jamie giggled. “I’m telling dad!”

“Get out!” she shouted. The door slammed.

Dan counted down from five.

“Dad! Lizzie called me a little shit.”

Dan didn’t bother pretending to be surprised.

 “Were you being a nuisance?”

Jaime looked up the ceiling and smiled mischievously. “I wasn’t.”

“Why were you in her room?” Dan asked, looking his son in the eye.

“I… I just wanted to talk to her…”

Dan rolled his eyes. “You’re not a very good liar, my son.”

“She has the new game I wanted. You know, the one gran bought her for her birthday.”

“So you wanted to what? Steal it?”

“Borrow it, Dad.”

“Steal it, Jaime,” Dan insisted. “Next time ask nicely.”

“She won’t give it to me if I ask nicely,” Jaime whined, sitting down next to his father and sulking.

“You won’t know if you don’t try.”

It was Jaime’s turn to roll his eyes.

Later, when Rose returned from play group with Phil, the little girl decided she would find out what her older sister was doing. She ran up the stairs, as fast as her four year legs could take her, and burst through the closed door without knocking. A scream (A Lizzie Classic) erupted soon after.

“Get out! Learn to knock! Jesus!”

Phil looked at Dan and Dan looked back knowing what would happen. Rose began to wail as her feelings were thoroughly hurt. Dan went upstairs and scooped her up from the hallway floor.

“Hush,” he whispered. “Lizzie’s just having a bad day. She didn’t mean it.”

“Really?” Rose asked, gasping between sobs.

Just before bedtime another fight broke out. This time Dominic was caught red handed in his sister’s closet.

“I think I might actually kill you, Dom.”

“What’s the big deal? You never wear this?”

“It’s for girls!”

“Clothes have no gender, first of all.” The thirteen year old scoffed at her brother. “It’ll look better on me anyway.”

“Leave right now!”

“What’s your problem?” Dominic said, still picking through the girl’s closet with determination.

“This is my room and those are my clothes!”

Dominic shrugged. Lizzie pounced. Dan rushed to the room to see what all the noise was about.

The two teens were red faced.

“Explain,” Dan said, crossing his arms.

“She attacked me—“

“You were stealing my clothes—“

“We’re siblings—twins! We share everything, Liz.”

“No we don’t! I’m so tired of this. I want a lock and key on my door, Dad.”

Dan put up a hand to get them both to stop. “First, why were you in your sister’s closet?”

Dominic shrugged. “She has this jumper that I want and I know she never wears it.”

“You want to wear her clothes?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, go to your room. We’ll talk about that later,” Dan said, trying to get back to the matter at hand. “Elizabeth, all day you’ve been screaming at everyone. What’s wrong?”

She glared at him as if it were all his fault. “Jaime tries to steal my games, Rose never knocks when she comes in and I was still getting dressed, and this one here,” she pointed to Dom, “Wants to steal my clothes.”

“Ah,” Dan nodded. “Well, I think you’ve earned a door that locks.”

“Thank you!” she exclaimed. “Daddy, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“Why are there so many kids in this house?!”

Dan laughed. “Go ask your father.”

When she did, Phil took her into his arms and told her, “When I first saw you sitting on that faded rug, with your thumb in your mouth and those big blue eyes looking back at me, I wanted you to be my little girl. When we found out you had a brother, I had to have him too. And when Jaime’s mother came to us and said he needed a home, I knew he belonged with us. Rose never had anybody to love her and we had so much love to give. That is why there are so many kids in this house. There’s space enough and love enough for you all.”

2.

Summer holiday meant no uniforms for 8 weeks which meant more chances for Dom to wear whatever he wanted. Today, he would ask his sister a very important question.

“Can I borrow your purple skirt?”

“Why?”

“To wear it of course,” he said as if that were obvious.

“Oh. Why?”

“Can I borrow it or not? I really like it.”

“Yeah sure,” Lizzie said, getting up to get the skirt out of her closet. “Let’s see if it fits.”

Dom put on the skirt and with a shy smile, looked at his sister for a reaction.

“Well…”

“Did you shave? Your legs look great!”

“No,” he shook his head.

“Lucky bastard. Anyway, it looks good. Where are you planning to wear it?”

Dom smile widened. “I don’t know. Maybe just to the park.”

“I’ll come too.”

Dominic trusted Elizabeth with his life. She had been with him since the beginning, literally. And while he never told her in his own words, she knew that he didn’t always like being a boy and preferred the more feminine things in life. It wasn’t that he was gay necessarily. She understood that somehow. She knew that even when Dom wanted to wear dresses and heels, he doesn’t seem to show preference to either sex. She also understood that there were days when he still wanted to be called ‘he.’

The next hour or so was spent styling hair, sharing makeup and exchanging clothes. Lizzie barely recognized him by the end of it all and so they were ready to go. At fourteen, Dan and Phil had given them freedom to roam the city as they pleased.

The two of them went down to the shops where they could blend in with the crowd. After getting some frozen yogurt, Dom and Lizzie sat down to watch the people pass by.

“What do you want me to call you when you are…? I don’t know, a girl?”

“Oh,” Dom said. “To be honest, I’m surprised you’re taking it this well.”

“I love you,” Lizzie said straight faced. “Right now, I want to know what to call you.”

“I always liked to keep it simple. Dominique should be alright.”

“My sister, Dominique. I like it.”

Dom, overwhelmed with happiness, hugged Lizzie with everything in her.

They heard someone rudely call to them. “Lesbians!”

Lizzie burst into laughter and shouted back, “We’re sisters!”

When they got home later that evening, Rose was in the living room watching a film with Dan. She looked up first. “You look pretty. You too Lizzie,” she added as an afterthought.

“Thanks” the twins giggled.

Dan’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Dominic, is there something you want to tell me?”

They stopped laughing and a look of solemnity crossed their features.

“I….I….” his oldest son stuttered.

“She’s called Dominique,” Lizzie butted in. “Your daughter hopes you can accept that.”

Dan stood up, towering over them both. “What’s going on?” he asked softly.

“Dad, sometimes I feel like Dominic and other times I feel like Dominique.”

“Yeah?”

“Liz has been trying to help me feel better about it.”

Without a second thought, Dan pulled Dom into his arms. “You could have told me. I can imagine how scared you were feeling.” Before they knew Dom was crying as the relief washed over him.

“You really think it is okay, the both of you?” Dom asked in regards to his parents, though homosexual, might not understand or accept something like this.

Dan smiled and kissed Dom’s forehead. “Go ask your father.”

Dom asked Phil, “Is it okay?”

Phil held Dom hands in his own. “You are okay. You always have been and you always will be.”

“Really?”

“I’m your Papa. Would I lie to you?”

“No,” Dom whispered, finally looking Phil in the eye.

“Have you been hiding who you are?”

Dom nodded.

“No more of that, alright. At least not at home, where you’re safe. You’re always safe here. We love you.”

3.

Dan was filming one day. Rose watched intently from her seat at the dining table.

“And I know some people have said that we’re bad parents for supporting Dom’s ‘lifestyle’. It’s funny how much we don’t care. Dom is happier than ever before and isn’t that the true goal any good parent? Anyway, I’ll see you soon. Good bye, internet.”

Dan signed off and sighed. “Was that good, rosebud?”

She climbed off her chair and made her way over to Dan to get a closer look at all the equipment. “Yeah. I think you’re a good daddy.”

“Aw, thanks. I think you’re a good rosebud.”

She giggled as he blew a raspberry into her cheek. “Why do you make videos?”

“Um, it’s my job. I always liked it, I guess.”

“Why does Papa make videos?”

Dan didn’t want to say the wrong thing to he told her, “Go ask your father.”

When she did, Phil said, “First, I wanted to share things with my family and friends. It was just for fun. Then, I wanted to make people smile. Then, I wanted to make your father smile and make him proud, then I wanted to make you kids smile and make you proud to be mine. Do you think it worked?”

Rosie smiled and nodded.

4.

When Jaime was sixteen he met a girl online. They were constantly texting and skyping whenever they can. About six months into their friendship, she invited him to visit while her parents were away.

“No.”

“What? Why not?”

“Her parents won’t be home?” Dan asked again. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. They’re going to Portugal for holiday but she’s taking summer courses and can’t go.”

“In what universe does this sound like a good idea, James?”

“This one. I know her, dad.”

“You think you know her. This could all be some plot to kidnap you and sell you or something.”

“Dad…” Jaime whined in his signature style.

Dan, fed up with the conversation, threw the last of the laundry into the machine. “Go ask your father. I’m done with this.”

When he does, Jaime is surprised.

“I think you should meet her, if she’s such a good friend.”

“But…”

Phil laughed. “No buts. Don’t you know how your father and I met?”

Jamie nodded. “But Dad was so against it when I talked to him.”

“I think he’s afraid that you’re growing up and staying overnight at a girl’s house won’t be so strange anymore. You’ll be going to Uni and doing whatever you want soon enough. How about you wait until you’re a little older and little wiser. That way you won’t have to hide from her parents anyway.”

“Were you scared to meet Dad?” Jaime asked.

“Hell yes.”

5.

Rose met him while studying abroad in India. His name was Vishal and he thought she was beautiful. She had long red hair and bubbly laughter. He was kind-hearted and had handsome chiseled features. The love of everything Indian brought them together. The end of term pulled them apart.

With a look of melancholy, Rose asked Dan, “Do you believe in love at first sight?”

“I believe in love in all its beginnings.”

“Did you love Papa at first sight?”

“Go ask your father.”

When she did, Phil said. “Your father loved me before he even met me. And, I loved him too.”

1.

They had made Phil a cheat sheet as the disease got progressively worse. It said things like ‘I should ring the bell when I am confused’ and ‘My name is Phil.’

One morning, a few of the grandchildren were visiting. Phil had his granddaughter sitting on his lap, looking at old photographs. The child kept pointing to the pictures and asking who the people were.

Lizzie turned to Dan who was pouring tea and asked, “Do you think he’ll always remember you?”

“Go ask your father.”

And when she did, he showed her his cheat sheet. At the bottom, in his own handwriting, Phil had written, ‘I am married to Dan. He is the love of my life.’

Dan smiled sadly. “He’s going to try.”

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr  
> [dannihowell](https://danni-howell.tumblr.com/)


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